As one of the speakers at this week’s South Carolina Tea Party Convention, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz indicted the Obama administration for its perceived assault on the American dream. The tea party favorite explained to a receptive crowd that the next generation of Americans is likely to lose hope that hard work and commitment will lead to personal advancement and success.

“The central challenge facing this country right now is that for millions of Americans, the American dream seems to be slipping away,” he said.

Cruz went on to cite recent surveys backing up his assertion. As Western Journalism reported last year, polling indicates about 60 percent of Americans now define the American dream as unattainable. An even greater majority believe children today will grow up to be worse off than their parents.

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A subsequent survey found more than three out of four respondents believe the next generation will be less successful than they are.

“You know,” he continued, “today for the first time in our country’s history, a majority of Americans believe our kids will have a worse life than we did.”

He affirmed that such a sentiment “has never been true in over 200 years of our nation’s history until right now.”

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Cruz further criticized the Obama administration’s foreign policy, stating that “America’s leadership in the world” has been damaged as a result.

“The Obama-Clinton foreign policy of leading from behind is a disaster.”

During the same address, Cruz, who has yet to announce whether he will seek the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, did weigh in on what the ultimate candidate will need to win in a general election.

“If we nominate another candidate in the mold of a Bob Dole or a John McCain or a Mitt Romney,” he cautioned, “all of whom are good, honorable, decent men, the same people who stayed home in ’08 and ’12 will stay home in 2016 and the Democrats will win again.”